Washington (CNN) -- A Democratic strategist's comment questioning Mitt Romney's stated reliance on his wife's advice regarding women's economic issues fueled a second day of efforts by the Romney campaign to fix a gender gap problem in his certain race against President Barack Obama in November.

Romney surrogates scheduled a conference call with reporters Thursday to continue pressing that theme following the comments Wednesday night by Hilary Rosen, a CNN contributor who is a Democratic adviser.

Appearing on CNN's "AC360," Rosen took issue with Romney's frequent statement that his wife, Ann, informs him about economic issues important to women.

"What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country, saying, 'Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues, and when I listen to my wife, that's what I'm hearing,' " Rosen said. "Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life."

Rosen continued by saying Mrs. Romney had "never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority off the women in this country are facing, in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and why do we worry about their future."

Ann Romney responded Thursday, saying raising five boys was hard work and saying she hears from women all the time about economic difficulties they face.

"Look, I know what it is like to struggle," said Mrs. Romney, a cancer survivor who has multiple sclerosis. "If maybe I haven't struggled as much financially as some people have, I can tell you and promise you that I have had struggles in my life. And I would love to have people understand that Mitt and I have compassion for people that are struggling and that's why we are running. We care about those people that are struggling and we recognize that this economic recovery has been very weak."

Rosen's comments also drew criticism on Twitter from campaign advisers on both sides of the aisle, as well as one of Romney's sons.

Josh Romney posted that his mother "is one of the smartest, hardest working woman I know. Could have done anything with her life, chose to raise me."

The senior adviser to Obama's re-election bid, David Axelrod, also took to Twitter to distance the campaign from the comments, calling them "inappropriate and offensive." Obama deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, posted, "Families must be off limits on campaigns, and I personally believe stay at home moms work harder than most of us do."

Romney's campaign, meanwhile, sought to link Rosen to Obama, noting her appearance at a White House event in December. Rosen has no formal role with the Obama re-election campaign or the Democratic National Committee, according to both groups.

Rosen later posted a direct comment to Ann Romney, saying: "Please know I admire you. But your husband shouldn't say you are his expert on women and the economy."

On Thursday, Rosen told CNN that Republicans were attacking her as part of a strategy to divert attention from policies championed by Romney that will hurt women.

"The issue that I'm focusing on is does Mitt Romney have a vision for bringing women up economically and can he himself stop referring to his wife as his economic surrogate," Rosen said.

Romney became the certain Republican presidential nominee this week after his chief rival, conservative challenger Rick Santorum, suspended his campaign on Tuesday. While Romney still needs several hundred delegates to clinch the GOP nomination, the departure from the race of Santorum leaves Romney's path free of obstacles.

However, Romney's campaign still struggles to generate enthusiasm among the GOP conservative base, which questions his more moderate stances as Massachusetts governor. In addition, a Washington Post/ABC News poll this week affirmed findings of other recent polls that Romney trails Obama among women voters.

Another poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University showed Obama leading Romney in New Jersey, even under the hypothetical scenario that popular Repubilcan Gov. Chris Christie was on the GOP ticket as Romney's running mate.

New Jersey is considered a solidly Democratic state in presidential general elections. The Quinnipiac poll also showed a Romney-Christie ticket trailing against Obama and Vice President Job Biden among women voters.

The Republican presidential campaign has included a conservative shift to appeal to tea party voters in the primary and caucus season. However, some socially conservative polices opposing abortion and health care coverage for contraception appear to be raising concerns among women voters.

Democrats have seized on that dynamic by emphasizing Republican stances that they say harm equal treatment and opportunity for women. In response, the Romney campaign is targeting Obama's economic policies as being bad for women.

The "war over women" took shape Wednesday, when Romney said Obama may not have started the recession but his policies extended it, which hurt women.

"He just made it worse, and made it last longer," Romney said. "And because it lasted longer, more and more women lost jobs, such that in his three-and-a-half years, 92.3% of the people who lost jobs have been women. His failures have hurt women."

An analysis of federal labor statistics shows that the Romney claim is technically true but lacks important context.

The number of nonfarm-employed women from January 2009, when Obama took office, to March 2012 fell far more than the number of employed men in that period. The total job loss for the period for both men and women combined was 740,000. The number of women who lost nonfarm jobs in that time span was 683,000, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That amounts to 92.3% -- the figure Romney cited. However, the statistic does not reflect that men constituted a much larger chunk of the job loss pie in the year leading up to Obama's inauguration.

In the 2008 calendar year, men lost a total of 2.7 million nonfarm jobs, compared with 895,000 lost for women. Men made up 75.4% of the 3.6 million jobs lost that year.

Romney's claim also does not reflect that the job losses for women began in March 2008, almost a full year before Obama took office. At that point, women held a total of 67.3 million nonfarm payroll jobs, the highest level of female employment of the Bush administration.

Meanwhile, a Romney adviser initially hesitated when asked Wednesday if Romney supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act that expands workers' rights to sue in the event of a pay discrepancy between a man and a woman.

"We'll get back to you on that," Romney Campaign Policy Director Lanhee Chen told reporters. A Romney campaign statement afterward said the candidate supported pay equity for women, but it did not specifically say he backed the 2009 Ledbetter law.

The Obama campaign immediately fired back, issuing a statement from Ledbetter that criticized Romney for failing to "stand up for women and their families."

"Anyone who wants to be president of the United States shouldn't have to think about whether they support pursuing every possible avenue to ensuring women get the same pay for the same work as men," Ledbetter said in the statement.

A Romney campaign official later said that the candidate had no plans to change the current pay equity laws if elected.

Romney got a boost Thursday when the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group, endorsed his nomination, a sign that conservatives will coalesce around his candidacy despite concerns about his more moderate history as Massachusetts governor.

An influential Republican, former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, said Thursday that Romney should aggressively focus on a policy-heavy message that questions Obama's handling of the economy.

That theme will be enough to keep the conservative base excited while also appealing to independent voters who will ultimately decide the election, Barbour told CNN.

"This campaign is going to be waged in the center," Barbour said. "Don't ever forget that Barack Obama is the great uniter of Republicans. The party apparatus, the conservatives, the tea party, the organizations like small businesses and the NRA, they will be very active in providing volunteers and our base will be very active. That's critically important. But the election is going to be decided by a few million people, most of whom voted for Obama last time but have the same level of buyer's remorse as ticket purchasers on the Titanic."

Obama had no public events scheduled Thursday, but Biden planned a New Hampshire speech attacking Romney's economic policies, according to advance excerpts released by Obama's re-election campaign.

"Just look at what Gov. Romney wants to do," Biden will say, according to the excerpts. "The Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, the ones that were intended to expire, the ones that will expire this December -- he wants to extend them."

Biden will assert the cost of the cuts totals a trillion dollars, and that the beneficiaries of the tax break are people who make more than a million dollars per year.

The focus on the opposing tax plans is part of a larger effort by Obama's campaign to push the so-called "Buffett Rule," which would mandate higher taxes for Americans earning more than $1 million.

Named for billionaire Warren Buffett -- who complained about paying a lower tax rate than his secretary -- the proposal coming up for a Senate vote next week is championed by the Obama administration as a first step toward bringing more fairness in the tax code.

"The Buffett Rule says that multi-millionaires should pay at least the same percentage of their income in taxes as middle-class families do," Biden will say Thursday. "The Romney Rule says the very wealthy should keep the tax cuts and loopholes they have, and get an additional, new tax cut every year that is worth more than what the average middle class family makes in an entire year."

On Wednesday, Obama made a similar argument in comments at the White House.

Citing "significant" deficits and the need to be competitive in the 21st century's "technologically integrated economy," Obama said: "We can't afford to keep spending more money on tax cuts for wealthy Americans who don't need them and weren't even asking for them."

In a swipe at GOP economic policy, Obama added: "In America, prosperity has never just trickled down from the wealthy few."

Also Wednesday, the Obama campaign released a video highlighting Romney's conservative stances on issues such as abortion rights, health care reform and immigration reform. The video concludes with Romney's declaration on the campaign trail that he was "a severely conservative Republican governor."

The competing messages were attempts by both sides to frame what is expected to be a close and vicious general election campaign in a favorable perspective.

Obama portrays Romney and Republicans as protectors of the wealthy at the expense of the middle class, while Romney and his party say Obama has stifled economic recovery and failed to effectively tackle deficit reduction.

By suspending his campaign, Santorum can continue raising money and likely keep control of some or all of his delegates.

Both Gingrich and Paul say they intend to stay in the race to the GOP convention in August.

The next primaries are April 24 in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Delaware, with 231 total delegates at stake.

The goal now for Gingrich and Paul is to prevent Romney from reaching the 1,144-delegate threshold before the convention.

* * * * * * *

The fact that women are STILL fighting over who's the best mommy or the best woman based on whether that woman draws a paycheck would be ludicrous if it wasn't so sad. Has it really been only forty-odd years since the "second wave" women's movement began? :lol:

Th0r S1mpson

04-12-12, 12:11 PM

Rosen left her job at the RIAA to spend time with her family. :lol:

What a slut!

X

04-12-12, 12:20 PM

Rosen left her job at the RIAA to spend time with her family. :lol:And in that position, wasn't she one of the most hated people in the world by people in forums like this?

Vibiana

04-12-12, 12:28 PM

And in that position, wasn't she one of the most hated people in the world by people in forums like this?

I think women should stay home with their kids if they want to. I'm just tired of all the fighting over it, as if one choice or the other is better for EVERY woman.

Th0r S1mpson

04-12-12, 01:18 PM

she's right that Mrs. Romney doesn't have to face many of the problems facing women today. Neither does Michelle Obama.

Disagree. Both of those women have mirrors.

CRM114

04-12-12, 01:43 PM

I think women should stay home with their kids if they want to. I'm just tired of all the fighting over it, as if one choice or the other is better for EVERY woman.

:up:

Th0r S1mpson

04-12-12, 01:54 PM

I guessed I missed the part where someone actually said that one choice or the other is better for every woman.

CRM114

04-12-12, 02:15 PM

Stay at homes stand around and gossip about how so and so sucks because she leaves the kids with a babysitter during the day.

Career women stand around the water cooler and gossip about how so and so gives up everything to sit at home and watch Oprah when she could have a career.

And then there are women that try and do it all. They are criticized by their coworkers because they always have to leave early or come in late. They are criticize by the house marms because she never comes to the PTA meetings or the halloween parade at the school.

Th0r S1mpson

04-12-12, 02:21 PM

Stay at homes stand around and gossip about how so and so sucks because she leaves the kids with a babysitter during the day.

Career women stand around the water cooler and gossip about how so and so gives up everything to sit at home and watch Oprah when she could have a career.

And then there are women that try and do it all. They are criticized by their coworkers because they always have to leave early or come in late. They are criticize by the house marms because she never comes to the PTA meetings or the halloween parade at the school.

Whoa. I think you just created justification for the war against women. They sound awful.

Screwadu

04-12-12, 02:27 PM

Won't someone think of the sandwiches?

kvrdave

04-12-12, 05:04 PM

That's typical. Didn't the same people scream about Palin and Bachman for not staying at home with all their children? :lol:

This isn't about "women's rights" or anything else, it is all about trying out what will gain traction by a party to hurt the other side. This was a poor decision to try this, especially with a cancer survivor and a gal with MS. That's pretty fucking heroic to deal with that and raise a bunch of kids.

Nickee

04-12-12, 08:04 PM

What has been lost in all the "outrage" is that it has nothing to do with stay at home vs. working moms. It has to do with Mitt Romney saying that he relies on his wife to help him understand and relate to the the economic problems of women.

However, I'm not all that sure the wife of a multimillionaire who had the luxury and choice to not work outside the home can really understand what most moms (or any woman) has to deal with.

I'm a single mom who works full time but even my stay at home mom friends were put off by the idea that Ann Romney is just your normal stay at home mom.

kvrdave

04-12-12, 08:14 PM

What has been lost in all the "outrage" is that it has nothing to do with stay at home vs. working moms. It has to do with Mitt Romney saying that he relies on his wife to help him understand and relate to the the economic problems of women.

However, I'm not all that sure the wife of a multimillionaire who had the luxury and choice to not work outside the home can really understand what most moms (or any woman) has to deal with.

I'm a single mom who works full time but even my stay at home mom friends were put off by the idea that Ann Romney is just your normal stay at home mom.

Sounds like the type of people that are probably talking to Ann Romney over the past year while she has been touring with her husband. But we wouldn't want Ann to go around and talking to women like you and later talking to her husband about what she has heard, would we? And we sure wouldn't want Romney to listen to her, because she's just a woman.

By the way, have they always been rich?

X

04-12-12, 08:26 PM

I'm a single mom who works full time but even my stay at home mom friends were put off by the idea that Ann Romney is just your normal stay at home mom.Few presidential candidates' wives are normal stay at home moms. Who was the last one, Bess Truman?

I think an at-home mom can probably more easily see the effects of the economy in prices and other people's reactions to it. A mom who works, and is at the level of a presidential candidate's wife, probably has enough business perks that they're fairly immune to it. Being able to afford it doesn't mean you don't know what it means.

kvrdave

04-12-12, 08:35 PM

"You just stayed at home raising 5 kids, dealing with breast cancer, and living with MS. You don't know what it's like to be a woman, because you have a lot of money. Now, Michelle Obama had to raise kids and work because they couldn't survive on the six figure income of a state senator and Harvard educated laywer. That's who I can relate to."

Fuck, the things people tell themselves to justify what they wanted to believe all along. I'm no Romney fan, but my aunt has MS, and if Romney's wife is dealing with that, dealt with breast cancer, and raised 5 kids, then the people talking shit about her need to rethink it. Money doesn't cure cancer or MS. She had more resources than most, but it looks to me like she dealt with a hell of a lot more than most.

Bitches be hatin'

Jason

04-12-12, 08:36 PM

Yay! Manufactured outrage!

kvrdave

04-12-12, 08:41 PM

I'm actually outraged. But it is probably the rum.

****!

X

04-12-12, 08:42 PM

Yay! Manufactured outrage!I assume the "Buffett rule" bothers you as well then.

JasonF

04-12-12, 08:50 PM

Hey, Mitt's wife told him that women don't care about things like birth control, so the rest of you can just fuck off.

And then there's this:

Lesbian Dem Hilary Rosen tells Ann Romney she never worked a day in her life. Unlike Rosen, who had to adopt kids, Ann raised 5 of her own.

"Man, we need to deflect this away from what Rosen said to make her the victim. Can we send in JasonF and try to make Rosen a victim as well?" :lol:

kvrdave

04-12-12, 08:57 PM

Is that "Use a new plate every time you get food"?

Every buffet in Oregon has that rule. Thanks to the Rashneesh poisoning people via the buffet. Nice try, Bhagwan.

Jason

04-12-12, 09:00 PM

I assume the "Buffett rule" bothers you as well then.

I don't really see how the two equate, but I am sorta bothered about a talking point being talked about as if it was legislation. But that's probably not what you are getting at.

Jason

04-12-12, 09:00 PM

Is that "Use a new plate every time you get food"?

That's the "Jummy Buffett" rule

kvrdave

04-12-12, 09:01 PM

Jummy Buffet? You and me should hang out. You need this.

JasonF

04-12-12, 09:06 PM

"Man, we need to deflect this away from what Rosen said to make her the victim. Can we send in JasonF and try to make Rosen a victim as well?" :lol:

Rosen is a big girl who can stick up for herself. Meanwhile, there's an army of right wingers getting butt hurt for Ann Romney's sake because they imagine somebody said stay-at-home moms don't do hard work, even though nobody said anything like that. All while one of the most prominent lay Catholics shits all over adoption. I fucking hate the modern right wing and everything it stands for. :(

kvrdave

04-12-12, 09:11 PM

Rosen is a big girl who can stick up for herself. Meanwhile, there's an army of right wingers getting butt hurt for Ann Romney's sake because they imagine somebody said stay-at-home moms don't do hard work, even though nobody said anything like that. All while one of the most prominent lay Catholics shits all over adoption. I fucking hate the modern right wing and everything it stands for. :(

Hey, let's bring up our own shit into this shit to make it seem like we give a shit.

No one cares about your little pet peeve side issue. Everyone thinks Rosen is a ****. Look at the "conservatives" like Obama running away from her, and Michelle tweeting to Romney's defense. You're digging the hole deeper. The general advice is to stop.

kvrdave

04-12-12, 09:20 PM

Oh wait, is Romney Catholic now? Is that how you intend to weave this into fitting here somehow? There must be a way to justify what Rosen said, and maybe it is because Ann Romney is a closet Catholic. Is that it? It's hard to follow when we are trying to deflect from the actual subject of the thread.

X

04-12-12, 09:26 PM

I don't really see how the two equate, but I am sorta bothered about a talking point being talked about as if it was legislation. But that's probably not what you are getting at.The Buffett rule is manufactured outrage at rich people. Do the numbers.

Artman

04-13-12, 01:04 AM

The fact that women are STILL fighting over who's the best mommy or the best woman based on whether that woman draws a paycheck would be ludicrous if it wasn't so sad.

I agree! Though I don't know if we're coming at it from the same perspectives.... but I'm all about finding the common ground. :)

CRM114

04-13-12, 07:48 AM

That's typical. Didn't the same people scream about Palin and Bachman for not staying at home with all their children? :lol:

This isn't about "women's rights" or anything else, it is all about trying out what will gain traction by a party to hurt the other side. This was a poor decision to try this, especially with a cancer survivor and a gal with MS. That's pretty fucking heroic to deal with that and raise a bunch of kids.

She still never has drawn a paycheck. I'm not exactly how being mom of the year makes one an expert on women and the economy.

Vibiana

04-13-12, 08:03 AM

She still never has drawn a paycheck. I'm not exactly how being mom of the year makes one an expert on women and the economy.

Read Proverbs 31. :D

Th0r S1mpson

04-13-12, 08:05 AM

She still never has drawn a paycheck. I'm not exactly how being mom of the year makes one an expert on women and the economy.

I'm not sure how drawing a paycheck qualifies one for that any further. Except that lady who almost won the lotto, without ever actually winning the lotto. She's drawn a paycheck and I'd like to hear her views on the subject.

CRM114

04-13-12, 08:09 AM

Because you make money and pay bills? I'd assume you feel the homeless guy down the street is as qualified as you to make informed comments on fiscal discipline too?

Nice ludicrous example you had to pull out there, by the way.

JasonF

04-13-12, 09:18 AM

Oh wait, is Romney Catholic now? Is that how you intend to weave this into fitting here somehow? There must be a way to justify what Rosen said, and maybe it is because Ann Romney is a closet Catholic. Is that it? It's hard to follow when we are trying to deflect from the actual subject of the thread.

1. Romney is not Catholic. However, Bill Donohue is a prominent conservative and he was commenting on this "controversy."

2. This whole so-called controversy is nonsense. Hillary Rosen said that perhaps, just perhaps, the wife of a multiple-millionaire who never drew a paycheck in her life might not be the best person to advise on women's economic issues. She said this in an extremely inartful way, and of course a whole bunch of people are deliberately misinterpreting what Rosen said because if they had to attack the merits of Rosen's point, they'd be revealed as being full of shit.

3. Do you think I'm deflecting? This whole thing is deflection from the issue of whether the GOP position on issues like contraception is bad for women, followed by deflection from the question of whether Ann Romney has insight into the economic troubles of American women. I'm sorry, but you don't get to decide "we're going to change the subject this far but no further."

CRM114

04-13-12, 09:24 AM

I think when she says "Never worked a day in her life" most sentient people realize she meant a paying job which pays household bills. It's just those meatheads that say "OMG!111!, whaddya mean moms don't WORKKK??!!" to change the subject of her very valid point.

DVD Polizei

04-13-12, 09:39 AM

Rosen is a big girl ...

Ok, I agree with you on this.

This is great, actually. Shows women can be just as qualified for politics and master of countries.

Th0r S1mpson

04-13-12, 09:58 AM

Because you make money and pay bills?

So you're saying Mitt Romney is almost infinitely more qualified than Obama with regards to the economy.

CRM114

04-13-12, 10:02 AM

Obama makes $400K a year. I'm sure he has his bills covered.

Dr Mabuse

04-13-12, 10:19 AM

By the way, have they always been rich?

Mo! They're known the hard times of the average American, they've 'been there'.

As Ann explained in Mitt's Senate campaign, they understand what it is to have to make ends meet. One time when they were in college, she explained, they were so broke they actually considered having to dip in to their extensive stock and bond portfolios just to have money to spend!

So they understand the struggles of the working class...

kvrdave

04-13-12, 10:36 AM

2. This whole so-called controversy is nonsense. Hillary Rosen said that perhaps, just perhaps, the wife of a multiple-millionaire who never drew a paycheck in her life might not be the best person to advise on women's economic issues. She said this in an extremely inartful way, and of course a whole bunch of people are deliberately misinterpreting what Rosen said because if they had to attack the merits of Rosen's point, they'd be revealed as being full of shit.

I like when she said this even more....
"You know essentially, you've taken on sort of the most sympathetic person in the candidate's realm, the wife, who is taking care of the children, supporting the husband, doing everything she can because she loves him,"

She said that in 2008. I wonder if she thinks Ann has been more involved that Michelle was, and that is why she deserves this.

3. Do you think I'm deflecting? This whole thing is deflection from the issue of whether the GOP position on issues like contraception is bad for women, followed by deflection from the question of whether Ann Romney has insight into the economic troubles of American women. I'm sorry, but you don't get to decide "we're going to change the subject this far but no further."
Is the GOP trying to take away contraception from women? That, in itself, sounds like a deflection from an actual issue. Ann romney said that she has been on the road with Mitt for a year listening to women and about the problems they are facing. Does her wealth and MS and past breast cancer make her unable to pass information about those conversations on to Mitt?

kvrdave

04-13-12, 10:37 AM

Mo! They're known the hard times of the average American, they've 'been there'.

As Ann explained in Mitt's Senate campaign, they understand what it is to have to make ends meet. One time when they were in college, she explained, they were so broke they actually considered having to dip in to their extensive stock and bond portfolios just to have money to spend!

So they understand the struggles of the working class...

Some would have sold at a loss, you pig! :grunt:

CRM114

04-13-12, 10:51 AM

Every president and first lady in my lifetime has come from a somewhat privileged background. I'm sure they all believed they knew what was best for the average working class family. Romney's quote was stupid (like most of his quotes), and uberbitch Rosen pounced on it. Commence the fauxrage.

Obama had a privileged background? A single mom on food stamps?

Th0r S1mpson

04-13-12, 10:51 AM

Obama makes $400K a year. I'm sure he has his bills covered.

Nice of him to add so much to every citizen's personal debt while he covers his own bills.

No working woman would do that. Neither would a stay at home mom.

Obama had a privileged background? A single mom on food stamps?

If she were raising him today, Obama would have probably grown up eating lobster with an iPhone! :mad:

CRM114

04-13-12, 10:53 AM

Yes, he personally added that debt. And he has the special "Obama" exemption from his part of that debt because he's Muslim.

Th0r S1mpson

04-13-12, 11:02 AM

Being a Muslim doesn't get him an exemption. I don't know where you come up with this stuff.

CRM114

04-13-12, 11:05 AM

:lol:

Sean O'Hara

04-13-12, 11:37 AM

Rosen is a big girl who can stick up for herself. Meanwhile, there's an army of right wingers getting butt hurt for Ann Romney's sake because they imagine somebody said stay-at-home moms don't do hard work, even though nobody said anything like that.

Really?

"Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life."

kvrdave

04-13-12, 12:26 PM

Doesn't the president make $800k a year now? Not that it matters from $400k, but I thought Clinton passed the bump and was the first to recieve the raise on his re-election. I could be wrong, though.

Th0r S1mpson

04-13-12, 12:28 PM

$789,674.

I don't know what part of that is book sales.

But this thread is about women.

So let's talk about how he sent his wife to Target with a photographer in order to look more down to earth.

X

04-13-12, 12:53 PM

Interestingly enough, the Presidential salary was richest in 1909, when the $75K salary translated to $1.714 million in today's money.No income tax either.

His father left when he was 3. Both he and Barack attended Harvard on scholarship. His mother was an anthropologist. Big money in that field not that Barack Obama would know about all of those riches as he lived with his grandparents, who apparently by your record made millions in selling furniture.

The "fancy prep school" he attended was also on scholarship. I know someone who just got into a $50,000 a year boarding school completely on scholarship. It does happen.

arminius

04-13-12, 01:21 PM

Who said anything about millions? You mentioned Stanley's furniture store, but how come you left out Madelyn's job as a VP of Bank of Hawaii? :lol:

VP of a bank, they're not as valuable as the janitor and a lot more common.

CRM114

04-13-12, 01:24 PM

My sister is a VP of a bank and I make more than her. And privileged means very wealthy not comfortably middle class.

Th0r S1mpson

04-13-12, 02:05 PM

My sister is a VP of a bank and I make more than her.

Wow, you treat your family this way too? :(

CRM114

04-13-12, 02:37 PM

Treat them how? I'm just a working stiff. My wife makes all the money in our house.

kvrdave

04-13-12, 02:53 PM

Nope, $400K. Clinton put in a raise from $200K to $400K but it didn't go into effect until W.

Interestingly enough, the Presidential salary was richest in 1909, when the $75K salary translated to $1.714 million in today's money.

Oh, that's right. I remember thinking it was probably being done because Congress would be around $200k before long.

clappj

04-13-12, 03:05 PM

Treat them how? I'm just a working stiff. My wife makes all the money in our house.

It looks like to get to surf the internet all day of your job. Nice job! :D

JasonF

04-15-12, 10:15 AM

Mitt Romney: Mothers Should Be Required To Work Outside Home Or Lose Benefits

Posted: 04/15/2012 7:04 am Updated: 04/15/2012 10:45 am

WASHINGTON -- Poor women who stay at home to raise their children should be given federal assistance for child care so that they can enter the job market and "have the dignity of work," Mitt Romney said in January, undercutting the sense of extreme umbrage he showed when Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen quipped last week that Ann Romney had not "worked a day in her life."

The remark, made to a Manchester, N.H., audience, was unearthed by MSNBC's "Up w/Chris Hayes," and aired during the 8 a.m. hour of his show Sunday.

Ann Romney and her husband's campaign fired back hard at Rosen following her remark. "I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work," Romney said on Twitter.

Mitt Romney, however, judging by his January remark, views stay-at-home moms who are supported by federal assistance much differently than those backed by hundreds of millions in private equity income. Poor women, he said, shouldn't be given a choice, but instead should be required to work outside the home to receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits. "[E]ven if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work," Romney said of moms on TANF.

Recalling his effort as governor to increase the amount of time women on welfare in Massachusetts were required to work, Romney noted that some had considered his proposal "heartless," but he argued that the women would be better off having "the dignity of work" -- a suggestion Ann Romney would likely take issue with.

"I wanted to increase the work requirement," said Romney. "I said, for instance, that even if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, 'Well that's heartless.' And I said, 'No, no, I'm willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. It'll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.'"

Regardless of its level of dignity, for Ann Romney, her work raising her children would not have fulfilled her work requirement had she been on TANF benefits. As HuffPost reported Thursday:

As far as Uncle Sam is concerned, if you're poor, deciding to stay at home and rear your children is not an option. Thanks to welfare reform, recipients of federal benefits must prove to a caseworker that they have performed, over the course of a week, a certain number of hours of "work activity." That number changes from state to state, and each state has discretion as to how narrowly work is defined, but federal law lists 12 broad categories that are covered.

Raising children is not among them.

According to a 2006 Congressional Research Service report, the dozen activities that fulfill the work requirement are:

The only child-care related activity on the list is the last one, which would allow someone to care for someone else's child if that person were off volunteering. But it does not apply to married couples in some states. Connecticut, for instance, specifically prevents counting as "work" an instance in which one parent watches a child while the other parent volunteers.

The federal government does at least implicitly acknowledge the value of child care, though not for married couples. According to a 2012 Urban Institute study, a single mother is required to work 30 hours a week, but the requirement drops to 20 hours if she has a child under 6. A married woman, such as Romney, would not be entitled to such a reduction in the requirement. If a married couple receives federally funded child care, the work requirement increases by 20 hours, from 35 hours to 55 hours between the two of them, another implicit acknowledgment of the value of stay-at-home work.

Romney's January view echoes a remark he made in 1994 during his failed Senate campaign. "This is a different world than it was in the 1960s when I was growing up, when you used to have Mom at home and Dad at work," Romney said, as shown in a video posted by BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski. "Now Mom and Dad both have to work whether they want to or not, and usually one of them has two jobs."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/15/mitt-romney-mothers-welfare-moms_n_1426113.html

What's next for all those people who are pretending to be outraged because they are pretending that Hilary Rosen meant that raising children is not work?

kvrdave

04-15-12, 10:27 AM

Yeah, this is Ann Romney's fault. Rosen was right to jump on her shit. Every fled from her for no reason at all. Finally she apologized for no reason at all. Justify that, and then use the same justification for Limbaugh and his "whore" comment. It will likely fit both.

What's next for all those people who are pretending to be outraged because they are pretending that Hilary Rosen meant that raising children is not work?

She did say it. I posted a direct quote where she said Ann Romney has never worked in her life, and you never responded to it.

And, "tu quoque".

JasonF

04-15-12, 11:17 AM

She did say it. I posted a direct quote where she said Ann Romney has never worked in her life, and you never responded to it.

And, "tu quoque".

Actually, you posted an out of context snippet of a full quotation. Here is the full context:

ANDERSON COOPER: Hilary, to the Romney camp's point ... they're focusing on the economy, and that's what women overwhelmingly say they really care about in poll after poll. Whether it's a typical pattern or not, women are seeing jobs come back much more slowly than men are.

Is there anything really wrong, then, with reaching out to women on an issue that they care about, on the economy?

HILARY ROSEN, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first, can we just get rid of this word "war" on women? The Obama campaign does not use it. President Obama does not use it. This is something that the Republicans are accusing people of using, but they're actually the one spreading it.

With respect to economic issues, I think actually that Mitt Romney is right, that ultimately, women care more about the economic well-being of their families and the like. But there's -- but he doesn't connect on that issue either.

What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country saying, "Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues. And when I listen to my wife, that's what I'm hearing."

Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and how do we -- why we worry about their future.

So I think it's -- yes, it's about these positions and, yes, I think there will be a war of words about the positions, but there's something much more fundamental about Mitt Romney. Because he seems so old-fashioned when it comes to women. And I think that comes across. And I think that that's going to hurt him over the long term. He just doesn't really see us as equal.

In context, it's very clear that Rosen is talking about having to work to feed your family and keep a roof over your head. But since Rosen chose her words poorly, just about everybody wants to ignore the substance of her point and focus on whether being a mom is hard work or not.

So fine. If we want to do that, we can do that. But when I post Mitt Romeny's opinion on that question, suddenly it's "tu quoque?"

You know what? Fuck this conversation. You win. Hilary Rosen is a lesbian **** whore who adopts her kids because she hates God and motherhood, and she deserves to be gang raped for attacking Ann Romney. Yay!

Sean O'Hara

04-15-12, 11:29 AM

The context doesn't make it better. Rosen's assuming that only women who work outside of the home deal with economic issues. Just because they aren't directly engaged in earning money doesn't mean stay-at-home mothers don't deal with cost of food, cost of education and other economic concerns. They may not have all the same concerns as career women, but Rosen's privileging of working women is propagating an ancient and sexist stereotype about the nature of traditional household roles.

wishbone

04-15-12, 11:43 AM

In context, it's very clear that Rosen is talking about having to work to feed your family and keep a roof over your head. But since Rosen chose her words poorly, just about everybody wants to ignore the substance of her point and focus on whether being a mom is hard work or not.Context apparently missed by the President..."There is no tougher job than being a mom," Obama said. "I think this was an ill-advised statement by someone on television."...and the Vice President..."My response to that is that’s an outrageous assertion. Look, I fought my whole career, and I’m no hero — whether it’s the Violence Against Women Act or equal pay, my entire career as a senator and as a vice president — to get to one point where my daughter is able to make whatever choice she wants and no one question it," Biden continued. "My daughter happens to have a master’s degree, she’s a social worker, she’s getting married, and if my daughter wants to be able to say I’m staying home and raising my kids, no one should question it."...and the DNC Executive Director..."What she said was absolutely out of bounds," said DNC Executive Director Patrick Gaspard on MSNBC. "Ann Romney is someone who obviously has worked hard to raise five good boys and she's made some tough choices in her life, I'm certain.As Stephen Colbert summarized,

"You know what's actually never worked a day in its life? Attacking motherhood."

JasonF

04-15-12, 11:56 AM

http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/no_way.gif

wishbone

04-15-12, 12:16 PM

http://i39.tinypic.com/icl5bm.jpg

"Ill-advised statement! Come back!"

Jason

04-17-12, 06:42 PM

She did say it. I posted a direct quote where she said Ann Romney has never worked in her life, and you never responded to it.

And, "tu quoque".

Oh, please. The statement was made in response to the laughable idea that Ann Romney could relate in anyway to the economic hardships working families face today.

Nothing Hilary Rosen said was factually incorrect. If Ann Romney's childraising is a full time job, then every single welfare mother in the nation has a full time job.

Th0r S1mpson

04-17-12, 06:54 PM

Maybe Hilary Rosen can talk about how welfare mothers haven't worked a day in their life next and see how that plays out.

kvrdave

04-17-12, 06:57 PM

At least we have all those Senators who can actually relate to us.

Supermallet

04-17-12, 08:26 PM

I just skimmed this thread, but I assume we all agreed as men that the best thing we could possibly do is keep women at each other's throats, right?

shadowhawk2020

04-17-12, 09:20 PM

The context doesn't make it better. Rosen's assuming that only women who work outside of the home deal with economic issues. Just because they aren't directly engaged in earning money doesn't mean stay-at-home mothers don't deal with cost of food, cost of education and other economic concerns. They may not have all the same concerns as career women, but Rosen's privileging of working women is propagating an ancient and sexist stereotype about the nature of traditional household roles.

I would say that having 200 million in the bank eases the economic hardship of being a stay at home mom. The gardeners, maids and any other help most people cannot afford makes the work at home a little easier as well.

She was talking specifically about Ann Romney right?

Th0r S1mpson

04-17-12, 09:52 PM

I just skimmed this thread, but I assume we all agreed as men that the best thing we could possibly do is keep women at each other's throats, right?

Exactly. :up:

slop101

04-17-12, 11:46 PM

Yeah, no one hates women as much as other women.

CRM114

04-18-12, 08:11 AM

The context doesn't make it better. Rosen's assuming that only women who work outside of the home deal with economic issues. Just because they aren't directly engaged in earning money doesn't mean stay-at-home mothers don't deal with cost of food, cost of education and other economic concerns. They may not have all the same concerns as career women, but Rosen's privileging of working women is propagating an ancient and sexist stereotype about the nature of traditional household roles.

Can we please not create an analogue between regular stay at home moms who make a huge sacrifice to do so and ridiculously wealthy stay at home moms who can afford staffs of people to do the mom stuff?

wishbone

04-18-12, 08:14 AM

She wasn't a stay-at-home-home mom?

CRM114

04-18-12, 08:21 AM

When was the last time she scrubbed a toilet bowl or shopped for groceries?

Philzilla

04-18-12, 08:22 AM

I just skimmed this thread, but I assume we all agreed as men that the best thing we could possibly do is keep women at each other's throats, right?

In my experience this is how women operate anyway

Sean O'Hara

04-18-12, 08:38 AM

Can we please not create an analogue between regular stay at home moms who make a huge sacrifice to do so and ridiculously wealthy stay at home moms who can afford staffs of people to do the mom stuff?

Sure, but that doesn't mean she's totally removed from the economic concerns of running a household. And can you stop pretending that wealthy stay-at-home moms just sit around eating bon-bons all day and don't engage in any charitable work outside the house?

wishbone

04-18-12, 08:42 AM

When was the last time she scrubbed a toilet bowl or shopped for groceries?http://i42.tinypic.com/4r6dxh.jpg

Nickee

04-18-12, 09:47 AM

Yeah, no one hates women as much as other women.

As a woman, I have to completely agree with this statement.

CRM114

04-18-12, 11:13 AM

Sure, but that doesn't mean she's totally removed from the economic concerns of running a household. And can you stop pretending that wealthy stay-at-home moms just sit around eating bon-bons all day and don't engage in any charitable work outside the house?

Charitable work has no place in the discussion. We are talking about either A.) working a job where one gets paid and has daily pressures and responsibilities in addition to motherly pressures or B.) pressure and toil of being a stay at home housewife/mother.

And yes. PLEASE. She is TOTALLY removed from economic concerns of running a household. Do you think Anne Romney keeps a check register? Do you think she reconciles her checking account? Do you really believe she has any concern whatsoever for balances? You've got to be joking.

Don't get me wrong. I have absolutely no problem with being rich and being aloof of everyday concerns of average people. That's what being rich is all about. But don't go around pretending you are one of us.

kvrdave

04-18-12, 11:41 AM

Bitch probably used her money to help out while she was in treatment for cancer or when her MS was too bad sometimes. She doesn't get us.

Supermallet

04-18-12, 12:08 PM

My mother has MS. It can be a crippling disease (sometimes literally, my mother was paralyzed at one point for the better part of a year because of it), and if someone had that AND cancer and still raised five kids, I'm not going to knock them.

CRM114

04-18-12, 01:23 PM

Who's knocking them? She just hasn't ever worked a paying job or had to worry earning money. Why is this so difficult to understand?

wishbone

04-18-12, 02:04 PM

http://i40.tinypic.com/zu347d.png

http://i41.tinypic.com/mb7e6d.png

CRM114

04-18-12, 02:29 PM

Political douchebags. Yawn.

slop101

04-18-12, 03:23 PM

Why are people even giving this Rosen character any sort of traction? She's no one! She's just a glorified TV political commentator - she hasn't worked for the Obama administration, or really anyone of any note. These may as well be comments from some random person off the street.

Even still, don't people realize that Ann Romney has NEVER worked? Like ever.

The whole point of that comment wasn't to bash stay at home moms, it was to highlight the fact that she has no idea what it's like to be a mom struggling to get by. As in 90% of mothers out there who not only have to be mothers, but have to work to provide the food that they also have to prepare. THAT is what Romneys will never understand.

X

04-18-12, 03:25 PM

I guarantee David Axelrod was not offended by those comments.It appears the president and vice-persident were though...

In an interview with the Columbus, Ohio, TV station WCMH, President Obama said Hilary Rosen's comments about Ann Romney were "ill-advised":

First of all, there is no toughter job than being a mom. I've watched Michelle, who for most of her career had juggled work and family. but there were times she was on maternity leave and I promise you that's work. That was an ill-advised statement by somebody on television. It's not something I subscribe to. My general rule is, you don't talk about the spouses of elected officials because they've got a really tough job. They're out there supporting their husband or wife who's chosen to serve in the public eye. I think they're off limits. So on both counts it was the wrong thing to say and I haven't met Mrs. Romney but she seems like a wonderful woman and i know she's devoted her life to her famliy.

And Vice President Biden, too, addressed the issue of stay-at-home moms in on MSNBC's "The Ed Show":

My response to that is that’s an outrageous assertion. Look, I fought my whole career, and I’m no hero, whether it’s the violence against women act or equal pay my entire career as a senator and as a vice president, to get to one point where my daughter is able to make whatever choice she wants and no one question it. My daughter happens to have a master’s degree, she’s a social worker, she’s getting married and if my daughter wants to be able to say I’m staying home and raising my kids no one should question it.

X

04-18-12, 03:26 PM

Just political hacks.

kvrdave

04-18-12, 03:44 PM

I guarantee David Axelrod was not offended by those comments.

It's not much different than the Limbaugh "whore" statement. I can't imagine anyone really cared, but saw it as an opportunity to act outraged and go after someone they don't care for. That is all that happened here. Act outraged at Rosen and eventually she apologized, but like Limbaugh. I doubt either thought they were wrong, but political theater doesn't give a shit about that.

JasonF

04-18-12, 04:05 PM

It's not much different than the Limbaugh "whore" statement.

Wrong.

kvrdave

04-18-12, 04:26 PM

Wrong.

Enlighten us all with your unbiased opinion. :lol:

slop101

04-18-12, 05:11 PM

The difference being is that the woman Limbaugh called a whore wasn't necessarily a whore and that statement was Limbaugh's subjective opinion. Saying that Ann Romney hasn't ever held down a job is an objective fact. What they have in common is what the comments may imply, and that's based on what sort of life-filter the listener is hearing those comments through.

JasonF

04-18-12, 05:37 PM

Enlighten us all with your unbiased opinion. :lol:

Like you're going to listen? I've explained the context of both quotes already and you reject the explanations. Will it matter if I put it into a single post? I'm not wasting my time, but thanks anyway.

kvrdave

04-18-12, 11:06 PM

You're welcome? I'm sure it would have been unbiased if you had put forth the effort.

kvrdave

04-18-12, 11:22 PM

The difference being is that the woman Limbaugh called a whore wasn't necessarily a whore and that statement was Limbaugh's subjective opinion. Saying that Ann Romney hasn't ever held down a job is an objective fact. What they have in common is what the comments may imply, and that's based on what sort of life-filter the listener is hearing those comments through.

No analogy is perfect. There are some minor differences and some similarities. The point is that both said something that, in reality, was a throw away comment and got skewered by it because people suddenly found an opportunity in which fake rage could play well.

And who changed their vote over either statement? No one. It's just political theater.

K&AJones

04-18-12, 11:54 PM

The difference being is that the woman Limbaugh called a whore wasn't necessarily a whore and that statement was Limbaugh's subjective opinion. Saying that Ann Romney hasn't ever held down a job is an objective fact. What they have in common is what the comments may imply, and that's based on what sort of life-filter the listener is hearing those comments through.

Not exactly as what Rush actually said has been totally taken out context. He didn't call Fluke a "slut" out of thin air much like what Ed Schultz called Laura Ingraham a "Right-wing slut". The full context of what rush said is....

On February 29, 2012, after referencing Fluke's statement that "contraceptives can cost a woman over $3000 during law school", Limbaugh stated......

What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic], who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps. (interruption) The johns? We would be the johns? No! We're not the johns. (interruption) Yeah, that's right. Pimp's not the right word. Okay, so she's not a slut. She's "round heeled". I take it back.

Saying Ann Romney hasn't held a "job" is a obective fact? Depends on one's interpretation of "Job". One can make the same argument against anyone who has never ran a business, managed a budget being in charge of say....the whole country. Of course it's how one sees a "stay-at-home Mom" or a "Community Organizer" job importance and qualifications.

slop101

04-19-12, 10:52 AM

Now you're just getting into semantics.

CRM114

04-19-12, 11:02 AM

I guarantee David Axelrod was not offended by those comments.

Exactly.

If they weren't running against Romney, I'd totally abandon Obama based on this kind of stuff and the medical marijuana nonsense they are pulling.

Nausicaa

04-19-12, 11:03 AM

Not exactly as what Rush actually said has been totally taken out context. He didn't call Fluke a "slut" out of thin air much like what Ed Schultz called Laura Ingraham a "Right-wing slut". The full context of what rush said is....

On February 29, 2012, after referencing Fluke's statement that "contraceptives can cost a woman over $3000 during law school", Limbaugh stated......

What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic], who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps. (interruption) The johns? We would be the johns? No! We're not the johns. (interruption) Yeah, that's right. Pimp's not the right word. Okay, so she's not a slut. She's "round heeled". I take it back.

Saying Ann Romney hasn't held a "job" is a obective fact? Depends on one's interpretation of "Job". One can make the same argument against anyone who has never ran a business, managed a budget being in charge of say....the whole country. Of course it's how one sees a "stay-at-home Mom" or a "Community Organizer" job importance and qualifications.

When someone uses the phrase 'held a job', it is pretty fucking obvious what they mean. No one - ever - has referred to motherhood as 'holding a job', even if it is hard work in its own right.

And it's hilarious you try and argue Limbaugh's comments were taken out of context. The context makes them worse. Not that I think that says anything more than Limbaugh is a dick.

kvrdave

04-19-12, 11:03 AM

Now you're just getting into semantics.

And you weren't? :lol:

I don't really care, I'll just stick up for Obama and say that he was correct on this matter. May be the only time JasonF hasn't. -wink-

CRM114

04-19-12, 11:08 AM

No analogy is perfect. There are some minor differences and some similarities. The point is that both said something that, in reality, was a throw away comment and got skewered by it because people suddenly found an opportunity in which fake rage could play well.

And who changed their vote over either statement? No one. It's just political theater.

Sorry, calling a woman a "whore" is pretty loathsome in any context except promiscuous women or prostitutes. And even then, its insulting. I know this forum loves that word though. I'm not sure what insulting name Anne Romney was called.

wishbone

04-19-12, 11:40 AM

Perhaps if Hilary Rosen had started with, "The Romneys do not have to face economic hardships like so many Americans do...," then maybe she would have had a point to be discussed. No, Hilary Rosen went directly after Ann Romney -- for a comment made by Mitt, not by Ann -- and no amount of context or backpedaling can salvage what she said after, "His wife has actually never worked a day in her life!"

kvrdave

04-19-12, 12:14 PM

Maybe. I don't see them as much more out of touch than Michelle Obama saying she didn't have the luxury of staying home with the kids while they were still making enough to be in the top tax bracket with a 6 figure income.

CRM114

04-19-12, 01:50 PM

Perhaps if Hilary Rosen had started with, "The Romneys do not have to face economic hardships like so many Americans do...," then maybe she would have had a point to be discussed. No, Hilary Rosen went directly after Ann Romney -- for a comment made by Mitt, not by Ann -- and no amount of context or backpedaling can salvage what she said after, "His wife has actually never worked a day in her life!"

Bah. Anyone with any sense understands what she meant. Ann hasn't had to work and provide for her family so what in the hell does Ann's input into family economics actually mean? Very little.

Marc Brobard

04-19-12, 04:34 PM

Bah. Anyone with any sense understands what she meant. Ann hasn't had to work and provide for her family so what in the hell does Ann's input into family economics actually mean? Very little.

Yes, because if you haven't done it, you have no business talking about it. A few hundred thousand historians would say you're wrong, along with the millions of others.

printerati

04-24-12, 06:18 AM

I'm just a working stiff. My wife makes all the money in our house.

So...we should be making fun of her for paying more in taxes than we make?

CRM114

04-24-12, 08:01 AM

Yes, but we file jointly. And I don't think there was any "we" about it. For all I know, you could run six gas stations in Kentucky.